Nice Things Said

Back Cover Blurb

...Just then the well's rusted iron lid, which looked like it had been sealed shut for centuries, shook and opened slightly. Sarp froze, his hair standing on end. He saw Ayten out of the corner of his eye as she approached him. But he couldn't move, as if in a trance.

"Watch out, Sarp! She'll stab you!"

When Ayten attacked Sarp with the scissors, Tahir skillfully swung and punched her. Ayten dropped the scissors and doubled over, gasping for air.

"She would have killed me if you hadn't come," said Sarp.

But before Tahir could reply, she attacked him, raking her razor-sharp fingernails across his face. He screamed in pain, then drove a powerful punch into her face. She fell to the ground like a chopped tree.

He and Sarp noticed something move on the other side of the garden.

The skeleton of a soldier with a torn uniform was standing near the well, gazing at them. They heard the hissing noise of flapping wings, then crackling sounds, as thousands of crickets that lived in the trees hit the ground, dead. Night was falling. Everything in the garden took on a murky, gray hue. Sarp looked at Tahir, whose dark complexion had turned a pasty white.

Young Sarp, his best friend, and three old ladies, blessed or cursed with "second sight," sense that something sinister and highly dangerous is operating in their neighborhoodplanning and achieving the success or demise of various people in order to reach its ultimate goal. But what is this goal and how many people will have to die?

The Amulet is set during the childhood years of a couple of neighborhood kids, in the enchanting city of Izmir, Turkey, which is in itself other-worldly, because of its ancient roots and the combined and evolved superstitions of many different cultures.

Our young people decide to trust their elders, when reality starts to become confusing. The three old ladies happen to be soothsayers, native to Izmir and familiar with events of the past eighty years.

And that's where it becomes puzzling. Did it happen that way? How and why? How can they prevent this terrible wraith that is about to happen at any minute?

This book presents the possibility of events happening in different places and at different times, but happening again at the present moment. It will force you to reconsider accepted concepts of how we exist in space and time.

A Review

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In Sadik Yemni's other-worldly novel, The Amulet, Yemni takes his readers on a grand tour through a spellbinding labyrinth of possibilities, realistic and yet mystical.

The story of a young Turkish boy named Sarp takes place in Izmir, Turkey. As he spends the summer with his grandmother, unrestricted by the overly protective watch of his parents, he sets off on an adventure that will stay in the corners of his mind for the rest of his life.

Sarp, his grandmother and a few of their close friends have "second sight." They can see not only the future, but the past as well as concurrent events happening in parallel existences.

When people start to mysteriously die, they soon realize an antique mirror is a portal leading to other worlds: an opportunity, a tool that can be used for good or evil.

Sarp and his friends decide to trust their elders, when reality becomes confusing. Three elderly ladies happen to be traditional soothsayers, native to Izmir and familiar with the events of the past eighty years. And that's where it becomes puzzling. Did it happen that way or not?

Yemni was born and raised in Turkey. He currently resides in Amsterdam, Holland. The Amulet, one of Yemni's many novels, was translated from Turkish into English by Dr. Mert Arkanbas.

The Amulet is a book about what happens when events in different places and time happen simultaneously. It will force you to reconsider your own existence in space and time.

Foremost Press gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution of The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey to the translation of this book.

The Amulet was published by Foremost Press. It can be ordered at ForemostPress.com and Amazon. ISBN-10: 1-936154-05-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-936154-05-0
296 pp, $15.97